The Significance of Geography on Trade, State Power and Development: Comparative Research on West Africa and East Mediterranean Europe from Eighth to Fifteenth Century

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Abstract:

The existing historical economic and political accounts of Africa and Europe fails to fully explain the divergence of commerce, state power, and development between the two regions. The patterns of differences in these two regions have far more significant underlying factors. They go beyond historical experiences of Africa's of slavery and slave trade, colonialism and imperialism. The over-emphasis on unique history as the primary cause of the gap in state power and development veils fundamental insights that may be useful in understanding this divergence and possibly reduce current and future inequalities between the two regions. Notwithstanding political, economic and social accounts on the origin of the existing power asymmetries between Africa and Europe, spatial and geophysical factors have been left out of the equation hence the goal of the study.

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The Significance of Geography on Trade, State Power and Development: Comparative Research on West Africa and East Mediterranean Europe from Eighth to Fifteenth Century

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